Herakles

Herakles stands with his left foot out and turned, while his right foot is back. His right arm is upraised holding the end of a club, which is missing. His left arm is extended downward at his side with a stylized, triangular lion skin hanging down from it. Toes are slightly indicated; fingers are not. The molded portions of the musculature are naturalistic but not brawny and are relatively undetailed, apart from the incised circular nipples. The face is molded and proportionate; eyes, nose, mouth, and eyebrows are indicated. His hair is uncovered and is represented in straight rows. Statuettes showing Herakles in an attacking stance like this are very common in the ancient world (1). The god may have had a connection with cultivation in early Italy (2). NOTES: 1. See A.-M. Adam, Bronzes étrusques et italiques (Paris, 1984) 180-92, nos. 271-95; and A. Naso, I bronzi etruschi e italici del Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Kataloge vor- und frühgeschichtlicher Altertümer 33 (Mainz, 2003) 37-43, nos. 48-61, 63-64, and 66-67, pls. 21-24. 2. S. J. Schwarz, “Herakles/Hercle,” Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae 5.1: 196-253, esp. 197; F. van Wonterghem, “Le culte d’Hercule chez les Paeligni documents anciens et nouveaux,” L’Antiquité classique 42.1 (1973): 36-48; F. Jurgeit, Die etruskischen und italischen Bronzen sowie Gegenstände aus Eisen, Blei, und Leder im Badischen Landesmuseum Karlsruhe, Terra Italia 5 (Pisa, 1999) 56-69, nos. 61-89, pls. 21-28. Jane A. Scott and Lisa M. Anderson